Friday, 8 December 2017

Strictly savage

It’s beginning to look a lot like
Christmas and panto season seems to be in full swing – that is, if you believe
the familiar stories and array of villains we are seeing paraded on TV in the
nation’s favourite reality shows in the lead up to the day itself. Nothing says
‘Christmas prime time’ quite like celebrities eating kangaroo testicles in the
jungle or a fantastic dancing being accused of diva behaviour and being
lampooned in the media, does it?

At this time of year, we have
become accustomed to the reality show hat trick of The X Factor, Strictly Come
Dancing and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. One after the other begins, a
cast of grinning and gurning presenters and judges appear and an ensemble of
famous-ish / soon-to-be-infamous faces flash across our screens to our gasps
and boos, all in the name of entertainment.

These shows have almost become
parodies of their former selves and we all know the formula; dancers will
dance, singers will sing, celebs will do unappetising things, and they will be
judged for it. And not just by the appointed judges on the shows themselves,
but by the public. And of course, the media. Shows like this are designed to
send the Twittersphere into a frenzy and every man and his dog, whether they
actively watch the programmes or not, will no doubt have heard about the events
and will have some kind of opinion. The media perpetuate any whiff of scandal
or controversy and it seems that the public can’t get enough of the juicy
gossip.

As I say, it is panto season after
all, and perhaps at this time of year, we are more hungry to have a good
villain to boo at and a hero or heroine to raise up. These reality shows
undoubtedly serve to fuel our appetite and unfortunately, Alexandra Burke is
appears to be the focus of the media attention in this year’s Strictly. She has
become the focus of a hate fuelled media agenda, with news story upon news
story critiquing and challenging and stirring up anything and everything
possible to paint her in a bad light. For what purpose? What has she done to
deserve it? Aside from accepting a big BBC paycheque, and donning her dancing
shoes morning, noon and night for the past few months. In doing so, she signed
up for more than just the cha-cha – but the reason for the outpouring of hatred
is actually quite beyond me. Watch her on the show, and she is no different
than any of her celebrity competitors behind the scenes and she dances up a
storm every Saturday – but still has found herself in the bottom two more than
once. The sheer volume of media coverage attributed to her compared to the rest
of the show surely must be fuelling the fire of public opinion.

Founded or not, the public will no
doubt think ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ when reading about her diva
behaviour or so-called ‘embaressing’ moments being dragged up from the past,
and will buy into the hype whipped up by the media, who also love a good bad
guy, and will vote her out as a result.

The good thing for people in
Alexandra’s position is that the feeding frenzy will soon pass and these shows
do have a shelf life. Come Boxing Day when we’re eating turkey leftovers,
Alexandra and her team will be looking at what is left over from her reputation
and previous public standing, to see what can be salvaged and how to move on to
gain public support once more. As much as this could all be a storm in a
Strictly teacup, there’s no doubt that her appearance on the show has both
positively and negatively impacted on her public persona and to get back in the
driving seat, she will probably hit the media circuit to draw attention to the
unfair portrayal she was subjected to.

I don’t mean to be cynical here, I
would actually be in support of Alexandra doing something like this and can see
why, as a PR exercise in damage limitation and to build her reputation in her
own terms, this is almost a necessary endeavour. There is a trend for people in
the public eye to call out injustice or unfair reporting in the media of late
and this is another instance where a strong-minded personality such as Alexandra
could be seen to take a stand against such ferocious attacks and question why
indeed the media, or perhaps ourselves, feel the need to vilify celebrities who
are actually good at what they do and aren’t apologetic for it. There’s
certainly more at play here than your typical panto.

Comment by Kelly O’Hanlon, Senior Lecturer in PR at Birmingham City University’s School of Media.Media coverage with: Huffington Post and on the Daily Star online.

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